The 1857 Iron County Militia Project: Content / The Self-Confessed / William Edwards

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[news] Militia Accounts of the Massacre
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[news] Other Militiamen at the Massacre
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William Edwards

Biographical Sketch of William Edwards
on Friday April 30 2010
by The Editors

in MMM Militiamen > The Self-Confessed
comments: 0
not rated -

William Edwards, his personal and family background, and his involvement in and statements about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

William Edwards (1841-1925)

Biographical Sketch

William Edwards was a native of Worchestershire in the West Midlands of England who immigrated to America and pioneered in southern Utah.

William Edwards was born in Worchestershire, England, the son of Samuel James Edwards and Ann Robinson. He immigrated to Utah with his parents in 1851 and he was baptized in 1852.

In 1857, the family moved to Parowan in Iron County. By 1860, the Edwards had moved north to Beaver, Beaver County. In 1861, Samuel Edwards moved his family southwest of Beaver to the future site of Greenville. In 1860 or 1861, William Edwards married Scottish emigrant Helen McCulloch Miller (1844-1908). They remained in Greenville for the rest of their lives and Helen bore Edwards twelve children, only four of whom survived to adulthood.

Edwards' principal occupation was farming but he also served as constable and postmaster in Beaver for many years. Beginning before the turn of the century Edwards served for fifteen years as a Mormon bishop in Greenville.

The year before his death, Edwards prepared an affidavit concerning the massacre, probably the last statement produced by any of the militiamen. He died in 1925, survived by his children and grandchildren.

Private William Edwards (not listed
in 1857 militia rolls), Cedar City

Statements Relative to the Massacre

In 1857, the Edwards family moved to Parowan in Iron County. Neither Edwards nor his father were listed in the Iron County muster rolls for 1857, perhaps because of their recent arrival in southern Utah. In September 1857, Edwards was fifteen years old and living in Cedar City. Probably on Thursday the 10th, Edwards was among a detachment of militia reinforcements ordered to the Meadows. He described arriving at the Meadows that day, the council meeting that night that solidified a plan of action, and the massacre on Friday the 11th.

Edwards did not testify in the Lee trials during the 1870s, nor was he interviewed or make statements about the massacre during the 1880s or 1890s as some other participants did. Rather, in 1924, less than a year before his death and more than sixty-five years after the massacre, Edwards made a short affidavit concerning his presence at the massacre as a fifteen-year-old youth. His is probably the last of the militia statements on the massacre.

Edwards is not mentioned in Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant. None of the witnesses in the Lee trials identified him as a participant in the massacre or even present at the Meadows. Lee did not mention him in his posthumously-published Mormonism Unveiled. Yet there is little reason to doubt his statement: he was among several militia teenagers who had been pressed into joining the militia detachment bound for the Mountain Meadows and witnessed the massacre.

References: Affidavit of William Edwards; FamilySearch.org; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Lee Trial transcripts.

Further information and confirmation needed.

Please comment or contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.
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